which gun?

[woody801]

Hi,

Recently decided to get back into air gunning. Its been a while! Spend most of my time sat on the shore chasing ducks. Looking for some advise. What mechanism is best? Which calibre is best? I have a budget of £300 pounds so can anyone reccomend a decent gun? It will be used mostly for shooting rabbits with some corvids thrown in, so would need a gun with enough power to deal with them.

Thanks

Michael

[spandit]

Any 12ftlb gun would be fine for rabbits and corvids.

 

Not sure you'll get a decent PCP within budget but you could pick up a great springer. I really like the look of the Air Arms Prosport but have always lusted after the Air Arms TX200HC

Edited November 21, 2013 by spandit

[moorvale55]

My favourite is the HW80k, a break barrel. Mine is in .22 and is 26 years old and still shoots perfectly, an astounding bit of kit.

[evo]

My favourite is the HW80k, a break barrel. Mine is in .22 and is 26 years old and still shoots perfectly, an astounding bit of kit.

+1 an excellent rifle and built to last but they are deadly accurate, best springer about

 

atb Evo

[bullet boy]

My favourite is the HW80k, a break barrel. Mine is in .22 and is 26 years old and still shoots perfectly, an astounding bit of kit.

+1.

I will always recommend the HW80-Why?Because IMO it's thee best spring break-barrel Sporter ever made!

[woody801]

Thanks for the replies. I've had a look round today and I've found a gun I like the look of. Its a BSA ultra. Not the newest model but the one before that. It comes with a decent scope, silencer, bipod, sling and a stirrup pump. Price is £450. Its a bit more than In was wanting to spend but it might be worth investing a bit more for a better gun. Any opinions on the gun/price? Seems like a fairly good deal to me.

[woody801]

It's a .22 10 shot

[shootgun]

Save a bit more and go for the best hunting air rifle ever made mate... HW100 14 shoot, the best ever loading mechanism available on the market and the quietest silencer ever made...

The shot count is more than decent for a day out hunting, and accuracy is legendary... I will go for .177 as it will give you a flatter trajectory, and less hold over at greater ranges...

 

atb

[Stuntman]

I thoroughly recommend the fx cutlass aka logun dominator, superb rifle and my go to pcp, I also strangely love my hatsan sniper mod 125 both in .22,

 

Both are highly tuneable , the fx is the smoothest pcp I've handled, superb quality and quality engineering, maybe possible for the budget

[kent]

Get a HW80 if you want a break barrel a TX200 if you want an underlever. £300 wont get you anything like all the PCP kit you need. I bet I have had more than 100 air rifles over the years (the HW80 is the only one I have hung onto, admittedly its been fettled by Steve Pope). Get a .22 in a springer for you needs and don't listen to garbage stick to less than 35 yds and there is no difference in calibre other than the .22 hits harder and makes a bigger hole. Put a smallish 20-40mm objective scope on it no greater than 9x at top mag. and mount it low

[secretagentmole]

I do not like the MMC Ultra, they are very easy to double load, the probe has a nasty habit of snapping, as does the probe release switch, personally I think it is an abomination of a design making two hands do what one hand was perfectly capable of!

 

They are accurate, but poor shot count. I had one, for three weeks, sold back to the shop I bought it new from to pay for a secondhand Super 10! If you fit a bipod folding the legs forward will mean you cant use the MMC mechanism so can't cock the gun...

[Michael170874]

Hi woodie

There's some good replies to your answer.i too would leave the ultra alone dreadfull shot count.firstley I've been shooting vermin for over 30 yrs with shotguns but I've always loved my air guns too.ive had just about every make you can name in that time changing swapping,my guns sometimes twice or more a year due to bad points or issues with them.so here goes with the top gun in my opinion for what you want. The airarms s 200 mk 2 in 22cal you will pick one up for around £200 in excellent condition .this gun will out shoot anything for accuracy .nothing goes wrong with these at all.they also have the anti tamper screw so you can have a true 12 foot pound rifle not something at 10 ftlbs which all the new stuffs coming out at.its light ,accurate,easy to service which you can do yourself .i had mine running at 11.9 ftlbs with airarms field pellets the best gun ever

[kent]

Hi woodie

There's some good replies to your answer.i too would leave the ultra alone dreadfull shot count.firstley I've been shooting vermin for over 30 yrs with shotguns but I've always loved my air guns too.ive had just about every make you can name in that time changing swapping,my guns sometimes twice or more a year due to bad points or issues with them.so here goes with the top gun in my opinion for what you want. The airarms s 200 mk 2 in 22cal you will pick one up for around £200 in excellent condition .this gun will out shoot anything for accuracy .nothing goes wrong with these at all.they also have the anti tamper screw so you can have a true 12 foot pound rifle not something at 10 ftlbs which all the new stuffs coming out at.its light ,accurate,easy to service which you can do yourself .i had mine running at 11.9 ftlbs with airarms field pellets the best gun ever

 

And put a heavy pellet through it and hey presto your in illegal possession. 10ft lb or 12 ftlb both will zonk quarry at 30-35 yds

[chrisjpainter]

I have to agree with Kent on this Michael. If your gun really is doing 11.9 on aa diabolo field. I guarantee it will be shooting over 12 with a magnum. Every pcp I have ever owned has shot at least .3 more with magnum weight pellets and my r10 up .5 it runs at a max of 11.7 with magnums. I'd turn yours down half a ft/lb. A rabbit isn't going to care about it, but your local copper will... a standard s200 has plenty of oomph running at factory set 10.5

[RED BEARD]

for your £300 i'd go for a theoben fenman,hw97 or a tx200 if your going down the non pcp route.and down the pcp route i'd go for falcon (the older fn12/19's go quite cheap sometimes) or hold out for a AA s400.

[Michael170874]

This is for KENT,

Yes we who have years of experience as I do only used my aas200 at 11.9 once out in the field set with my chrono.if I was to change pellets to a10.6 grain I would once again set my power under 12 ftlbs with my chrono .so as to always be on the legal side of the law.and before we go into power curves etc .yes I set my gun to under 12 at its highest curve so as I always stayed legal.

[darren m]

This is for KENT,

Yes we who have years of experience as I do only used my aas200 at 11.9 once out in the field set with my chrono.if I was to change pellets to a10.6 grain I would once again set my power under 12 ftlbs with my chrono .so as to always be on the legal side of the law.and before we go into power curves etc .yes I set my gun to under 12 at its highest curve so as I always stayed legal.

michael good answer BUT - if the police confiscated it and it was running at 11.9ftlb with a 16gr AA field and they fed it a 21gr bisley mag , your rifle would be doing around 13.5 at a guess.

its a pain in the *** i know but its the law , you could set it with a bisley mag at 12ftlb , but then the akward bu**ers might feed it with 30gr rabbit magnums just to prove a point

[evo]

woody if you don't get a hw80 you need your head testing,they are accurate as hell and they have certainly stood the test of time with flying colours, if its a pcp you want,,save up a few more quid and get a huntsman classic, you,ll never need another rifle,

 

but if your like me then just get any daystate, once you have owned one and shot one you will not look at any other make of rifle again FACT,

 

atb with your choice mate

 

Evo

[kent]

michael good answer BUT - if the police confiscated it and it was running at 11.9ftlb with a 16gr AA field and they fed it a 21gr bisley mag , your rifle would be doing around 13.5 at a guess.

its a pain in the *** i know but its the law , you could set it with a bisley mag at 12ftlb , but then the akward bu**ers might feed it with 30gr rabbit magnums just to prove a point

 

Awkward? the law says any pellet

[Michael170874]

Have to disagree with the daystate choice I bought the air ranger new took it back a few days later .shifting zero constantly .gun was producing 9 ft bls power mag jamned .dont get me wrong lovely gun to look at amazing shot count but for a£1200 gun it should av no faults.

Then like a knob I whent and swapped it back at the shop for the huntsman classic. Which was even worse with all the above faults and more .that got sent back to the factory too.i got my full re fund on both guns and will never touch a daystate again.

But I've had the hw 100 k th new which had major issues too as my friends have had with theirs .the only guns I've never had faults with are air arms.

[old rooster]

Do most of my air gun hunting with a MK3 Daystate now, also use a Webley Axsor both in .22

 

Took the Daystate to bits this morning to give it a good clean and lube as I'd been out in pouring rain, put it all back together and put 10 shots on a penny sized group at 30 yards when checking the scope after refit. These things are awesome!

 

The best springer in my current collection is an Original Model 52.

[Dekers]

Thanks for the replies. I've had a look round today and I've found a gun I like the look of. Its a BSA ultra. Not the newest model but the one before that. It comes with a decent scope, silencer, bipod, sling and a stirrup pump. Price is £450. Its a bit more than In was wanting to spend but it might be worth investing a bit more for a better gun. Any opinions on the gun/price? Seems like a fairly good deal to me.

 

My BSA Ultra was a pain in the ****, kept leaking and went back to dealer, and then back to BSA twice. To be fair it was fine in the end, but it also had a fiddly cocking/load and it was sold.

 

Just my experiences, they are cheap in the PCP market place but I guess some must work fine!

[woody801]

Thanks for all the input. Sorry for the late reply my tinterwebs been down for a while. I saved some more money and ended up getting an air arms S410. Really happy with the gun. Managed to have half an hour shooting targets. Nice and accurate gun. Can't wait to get on the rabbits now.

[bruno22rf]

S410 takes a lot of beating-good choice

[Jim_gsxr1000]

I have a air arms s400 superlite it's great although for a springer the hw 77 takes some beating